NAPA Super DIRT Week will make history in less than two weeks with its 50th Running at Oswego Speedway. However, one historic moment was already made for the event Tuesday night by a young iRacing driver.
iRacing pro driver Dylan Yeager, of Hamilton Township, NJ, captured his first career DIRTcar eSports victory in the inaugural Super DIRT Week 50-for-50 eSports Classic, winning a trip to be honored at the 50th Running of NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week, Oct. 3-9.
Yeager was awarded the grand prize package – an authentic Super DIRT Week experience that includes two weeklong passes to the event, a hotel room reservation, travel reimbursement, and a 1-of-1 custom winner’s trophy that will be presented on stage during the Friday Night Lights portion of Super DIRT Week on Friday, Oct. 7.
“It’s gonna be so awesome, I can’t believe it,” Yeager said. “This is so cool, it’s gonna be such a cool event.”
His path to Victory Hill at the virtual Weedsport Speedway almost ended early, however, as Yeager nearly reached iRacing’s incident point limit of 12x in Preliminary Round Feature #1 – which, if reached, would have disqualified him from competition. But he held it together in the closing circuits of the 30-lap event and drove his #48 Super DIRTcar Series Big Block Modified the remaining distance without incident to finish P5 and qualify for the Final Round.
From there, Yeager dominated. He turned the fastest lap in Final Round Qualifying to claim the pole for the 50-lap Feature and proceeded to put on a clinic, leading all 50 laps to score the win and the richest prize in DIRTcar eSports history.
“It’s awesome,” Yeager said. “It took so long to win a DIRTcar-sanctioned race for me, and it feels great. To do it in these cars… I love racing these things.”
Yeager will be attending Super DIRT Week with his father, and was emphatic about what he’s looking forward to the most.
“Just going there, meeting new people and checking out the racing,” Yeager said. “The track is awesome, I’ve seen videos from there, and I’m hoping this will be a cool event to go to. I’m excited.”
Fellow iRacing Pro license driver Tyler Ducharme, of Bomoseen, VT, climbed from seventh on the starting grid to finish second – his best career DIRTcar eSports finish – and collected a $200 prize. Preliminary Round Feature #1 winner Robby Swan, of Oswego, NY, rounded out the podium and collected a $100 check for his efforts.
Each of the top-10 finishers received a complimentary pass to watch the 50th Super DIRT Week on DIRTVision in addition to their cash prizes.
Race fans can watch the 50th Super DIRT Week on DIRTVision as well, starting with a day of practice for all divisions on Wednesday, Oct. 5, at 1:45pm ET.
Tickets for the event are on sale now. Click here to purchase yours and experience the historic 50th NAPA Super DIRT Week.
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)
Final Round Feature (50 Laps) – 1. 48-Dylan Yeager [1]; 2. 25-Tyler Ducharme [7]; 3. 37-Robby Swan [4]; 4. 64-Gavin Collins [2]; 5. 2-Matt S Sanders [9]; 6. 213-Jim Boniface [14]; 7. 9-Collin Murphy [12]; 8. 98-Logan Hickerson [15]; 9. 22-Nick Cooper [13]; 10. 13-Bryce Bailey [6]; 11. 5-Logan Roark [3]; 12. 7-Brandon McDonald [23]; 13. 17-Dylan Wilson [11]; 14. 20-Dylan DeWert Jr [20]; 15. 3-J Speedy Bresette [18]; 16. 28-Jeff Sharp [21]; 17. 16-Dylan D Thomas [24]; 18. 56-Aaron Brown12 [5]; 19. 72-David Cologgi [17]; 20. 44-John Ruggiero Jr. [16]; 21. 4-John Cannizzaro [19]; 22. 99-Brian Lawson [8]; 23. 88-William Watson4 [10]; 24. 15-Justin Sick [22]